Ad Astra Per Aspera
by RezPlz
Summary: The Doctor is still not alone. He and Donna land on a desolate planet and find more than they bargained for. Assuming Stolen Earth/Journey's end never happened. An OC is involved.
1. Sic Erat In Fatis

The TARDIS landed on a dusty, grassless patch of some planet. The controls had been set to random and this is where his ship had decided to take them. "Well, Allons-y! Things to see! We don't have all day!" In his usual boyish excitement he was already out the door, leaving Donna Noble to catch up with him whenever she readied herself.

"Oi! Where have you taken us, Spaceman?" The red-head half-asked, half-demanded as she stepped out behind him and into a space that looked like pictures she had seen of the American Plains.

"Planet called Saso 7, apparently." The Doctor stated, looking around for some sign of locals. Before he could say anymore, a figure broke the horizon, booking it towards them and putting him instantly on high alert. He reached in his pocket and grabbed his sonic screwdriver, preparing for the worst.

"Run!" The figure yelled, revealing herself to be a girl who appeared no more than twenty, in tattered clothing that had been rather fancy once upon a time. The Doctor saw the fear in her eyes and grabbed Donna's arm and started to pull her back to the TARDIS.

The girl made impressive time and reached them in time to slam the door in their faces, closing them in and herself out. Through the crack in the door, The Doctor saw them, the reason she had been running… Veerals.

He heard a thunk against the door and he opened it up and pulled the girl inside, realizing that there was more to her than he had first realized--- she wasn't human.

She fell to the floor, writhing and moaning from pain as the Veeral inside her ate away at her organs and laid its eggs. "What is that thing?" Donna asked, obviously terrified at the insect like body she saw ripping through the girl's skin.

"It's a Veeril! Get back, that thing gets inside of you, it'll eat you alive and use your shell as a breeding ground." The Doctor responded hastily, yanking her back against the center consul, trying to keep her safe.

"But what about her?! Aren't you going to do something about her!? You aren't just going to leave her there…are you?" The Doctor could see that Donna was getting frantic. Watching a Veeral devour someone was hard on anyone, especially the first time.

"She can survive it, you can't!" His eyes were wide as he watched the scene in front of him unfold. She needed to do something soon or his statement to Donna would not be true.

"What? What do you mean she can survive? You said yourself that the bug was eating her alive!" Right, he had yet to explain that.

"Because she's a Time Lord, Donna! She can regenerate, she can save herself. You're just human!"

As if one cue, bright yellow-orange energy erupted from the mysterious second Time Lord's hands and head. Donna shielded her eyes from the bright light and huddled closer to the Doctor. "What's happening?" She asked, startled, trying to get some handle on the situation.

"Ahh! Yes!" He had been waiting for this since he had figured out what she was. "Yes! Reeeegeneration, Donna! Keeps Time Lords going. If our body is dying, we've got this nifty little trick to make sure it doesn't. We change every last molecule, become someone else."

"And that thing inside of her?"

"Gone! It can't survive the regeneration, the energy is too great, that's something only Time Lord's can handle."

The energy faded and a new girl was laying on the grated floor of the TARDIS. The Doctor instantly jumped forward to help her to her feet. She was smaller, Donna noticed, having seemingly lost a foot or so. Her dark skin had gone pale and brown hair had turned to blonde. "What just happened!?" A still confused Donna noble asked, realizing that she was being ignored.

"Captain!" The Doctor exclaimed, his eyes lighting up like those of a three year old boy who had just walked into a toy store. Even if Time Lord's lacked the ability to recognize each other through regenerations he would have known it was her. She was, after all, the only Time Lord who dressed like and called herself a pirate.

She blinked a few times, clearing the leftover regeneration fogginess from her mind before she accepted his hand and let him help her to her feet. "Doctor." That was all that was needed. Seconds later, he pulled her into a large hug, his skinny frame nearly engulfing her 5 foot body.

"You're short!" He commented with a sparkle in his eye. Yes, as a matter of fact he was going to make fun of her new body right after regeneration.

"And you're still not ginger!" The Captain replied without missing a beat. She knew how particular he was about that physical trait and as far as she knew, he still hadn't ever been a red-head.

The Doctor mock pouted and was about to respond when Donna Noble's voice interjected. "Oi! Spaceman! Tell me what is going on! Who is she? Do you two know each other?" Right, he thought to himself as Donna shot off questions. There was Donna.

"Donna!" He said, drawing out the A in her name for the fun of it. "This is The Captain! Captain, Donna, Donna, Captain." He introduced them, the boyish glee in his voice still present. He was excited, this was a new development.

"But who is she! What just happened?"

"Time Lord." The Captain responded before the Doctor could jump in and confuse the poor girl even more. "I'm a Time Lord. That was regeneration, I was dying… I saved myself by becoming someone else. Nifty little Time Lord trick, isn't it?"

Donna was still confused. "But… Doctor, I thought you said you were the only one."

His face instantly darkened and his demeanor changed to become more serious. "So I did." He turned and made his way to the TARDIS consul, hitting some buttons and flipping some switches as he made an attempt to free them from the planet before any other accidents happened. He set a destination for them, a nice,quiet little planet with absolutely amazing tea- perfect for the story time that they were about to take part in.

"I'm sure the Captain would love to tell us all about it once we get off this planet." Where had she been all this time? Did she really not know about the return of the Master? Or the Daleks and the Cybermen and the Slitheen? He squinted, toying around with the idea that she had just been drunk for the past hundred or so years on the pirate planet Raxzusa. It wasn't something he'd put past her. She had, after all, done it before.

"In the mean time," The Captain said, clearing her throat and joining the man at the consul. "I'm sure you'd love some help flying this thing considering you're one man… and one man who never passed his driver's test." She winked at him as the all too familiar whirr-whirr sound filled the room. He returned a little smile and nodded to some levers and buttons opposite of him that needed to be handled. Yes, a little help would be nice.


	2. Tempus Edax Rerum

They currently sat at the biggest intergalactic café Donna Noble had ever seen. It was 125 stories and who knew how many square feet the place covered but despite its size it managed to seem very small, quiet and better yet, very personal.

"Those fools banished me right about the time you left that last time," the Captain was saying as she bitterly swirled some concoction she claimed to be like tea around in her glass. Donna wasn't sure she believed her, or the Doctor either, the tea she knew wasn't blue…or glowing.

"Thought I was playing them and working with the Daleks or something. Can you imagine that? I only brought them information, never gave it away. That wasn't my job, I was a proper Gallifreyian pirate."

The Doctor leaned into Donna as he noticed a look of confusion cross her face. The pirates she knew of were known to be rather unsavory characters. "She was more like a spy rather than a pirate. Scoured the universes for information, technology and cheap tricks that could help us win the Time War."

The blonde nodded her affirmation, signaling a waiter and asking for more of the glowing drink she had been drinking. "So I did the only thing I knew- I headed to Raxzusa," she smiled fondly, replaying the memories in her head. "Spent 50 years drunk and just as long hung over. Gambled, got in to trouble…" her face darkened and the Doctor leaned forward. This is what he wanted to hear.

"Somewhere along the line I was accused of cheating on a numbers game. I don't cheat! Especially with numbers games, those are very serious. Unfortunately for me, I just happen to be very good with numbers," Her fists balled and her eyes narrowed until she caught the Doctor's raised eyebrow. He was all too familiar with her temper just as she was with his.

With a sigh, she took a moment to compose her thoughts before she started again. "I went on trial and was found guilty and sentenced to a life sentence on Saso 7 but not after they chased me halfway across space itself. Once on Saso 7, it's a death sentence. No one is meant to escape alive, they're meant to become food for the Veerals."

"But you did," Donna stated, "You survived."

Her mouth twisted into a grin and she leaned her chair back on two legs, balancing precariously while she folded her arms behind her head in a very arrogant pose. "That's because they've never sentenced a Time Lord! I could escape the Veerals and the few times I couldn't, well… I'm still here."

The Doctor remained silent. He had been alone for so long. Then the Master had come along and tried to take over Earth. When his wife shot him, he hadn't chosen to regenerate. That brief moment where the Doctor thought he would have someone else had vanished. He had gone on but now the Captain was here, right in front of him. He was still trying to comprehend the reality of the situation.

"But as advanced as your lot is, no one has come up with a way to sense another Time Lord across space?" The Captain was grateful for Donna, without her the situation would likely be awkward and quiet.

"The very core of Raxzusa is a natural biodamper. When you're there, you're hidden. The planet is mostly populated by criminals and outlaws. It's a perfect place for them to live," The Doctor chimed in. It was such a simple solution; he wondered why he hadn't thought to check there before. Simple yes, but also a stretch. The chances of him finding another Time Lord on Raxzusa had been slim.

Even Donna knew that right now wasn't a time to be sarcastic. The trio sat in silence for a few minutes, the only interruption being the waiter bringing the Captain another drink. "I tried to go back," she mumbled, her voice low and eyes downcast. "When the Time War reached the worst, I tried to go back and offer my help. They wouldn't take it. They wanted nothing to do with me."

"We lost the Time War," The Doctor said after a few moments. "Everyone lost, there wasn't a winner. The only way to end it was with a Time Lock. I thought I was the only survivor. The Master popped up for a bit but his wife shot him and he refused to regenerate. But all this time you've been on Raxzusa and Saso 7." He wasn't sure how he felt about that right now. Bitter, a little mad? Or maybe just relieved to find someone else.

The Captain's face fell. "All of them? All of the Time Lords?" She asked in disbelief. When she had left, there had been nearly the whole civilization left.

"Gone."

That one word had power. Nothing else was needed for the Captain to realize the severity of the situation. All the Time Lords were dead, her whole race vanished without her knowing. She and the Doctor were the only ones left.

"Wait just a minute," Donna started, breaking the tense silence that had engulfed the table. "You've been drunk for fifty some years and you left him to clean up the universe by himself?"

The Captain's eyes narrowed and her demeanor instantly changed. "Have you ever been exiled, Donna Noble? You lose your will to live! Had I know the Time War had ended as such and the Doctor was the only one left don't you think I would have done something about it?" She couldn't deal with the foolish human woman anymore. Too much information had just been dropped on her. She needed time to process it.

She finished off her drink before storming back to the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor and Donna alone. "I wouldn't antagonize her," the Doctor stated plainly, following the path the other Time Lord had taken with his eyes.

"But aren't you mad? She was partying while you were working your tail off trying to fix everything. She was gambling while you were struggling."

"It's just who she is, Donna! She's always been that way but I know, I honestly know that if she had had any inkling of the situation or what had happened she would have been there. Did you hear her? She tried to come back. They wouldn't take her," He muttered, his temper rising and falling before he was finished speaking. The Doctor rubbed his temples before getting up and walking off.

"Come on! No use hanging around here all day. Intergalatic café doesn't even come close to the beaches of Calouyh, blue sand and orange water! It's so cold outside but the water is practically boiling," his voice was back to its usual tone and his demeanor had returned as well. Donna sighed, wishing that he could just stay static for once. It was hard to tell what someone was feeling when they changed on a dime like that.

But he was right. She'd nearly had enough excitement at this café. It was time to get a move on. There were plenty of sites to see and species to meet along the way. Maybe with two Time Lords, all those pesky problems could be wrapped up a whole lot quicker and they could take a real holiday. Those beaches of Calouyh sounded nice.


End file.
